


Notes relevant to "Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques", by  Pierre Dénys de Montfort

by takadainmate



Category: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Genre: Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-13
Updated: 2010-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-17 16:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21057527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takadainmate/pseuds/takadainmate
Summary: Master and Commander Aubrey/Maturin. Tentacles/Maturin? I don't know. This is mostly crack.From the diary of Stephen Maturin:March 23, ...drew from a very great depth a fascinating specimen ofOctopus Vulgaris. The creature showed an uncommon affection, and attention to the ears...





	Notes relevant to "Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques", by  Pierre Dénys de Montfort

_March 23_, ...drew from a very great depth a fascinating specimen of _Octopus Vulgaris_. The creature showed an uncommon affection, and attention to the ears...

"Stephen!" Jack called, and Stephen wondered if perhaps by remaining silent and bent in concentrated endeavour over his bureau, Jack would leave him to his writing for once. "Stephen! I have heard you brought aboard a sea creature of very great..."

He paused for a moment in the doorway, surprised by what he saw; the creature, which the men had said was a gentle and curious thing, wrapped around Stephen's neck and head in an altogether far too intimate a manner. Jack was sure, then, that the sea creature's eyes turned to stare at him, black as ink and malevolent, without doubt. He very much wanted to tear the thing from Stephen and have Killick roast it for his table.

Stephen had still not looked up from where he was writing his journal. "I am quite occupied, Jack. Is there something?"

"I see that you are," Jack replied stiffly, straightening up and not taking his eyes from the creature for a second. It had slipped one of its long, suckered arms across the top of Stephen's head and laid it there, easy as you please.

"Shouldn't it be in water?"

"Boiling water," Jack said inwardly.

It was a dangerous manoeuvre to engage Stephen in conversation about his beloved studies of nature, but there was something wrong about this octopus; some malicious, wicked-feeling that Jack couldn't explain. In all conscience, Jack would not leave Stephen alone with this strange thing.

Stephen looked up, and there was joy in his eyes as he spoke. "Yes! Yes! I would have thought so too. But the dear seems to prefer my neck to the bucket."

Jack did not like the way it pulled its arms more tightly around Stephen, nor the way one of its appendages stretched down his chest. Jack had heard stories.

"Are you quite certain it's safe?" Inching closer, the creature's beady eyes trained unerringly on him, Jack contemplated how Stephen would take to him killing his new pet. He did, after all, very much enjoy his dissections.

"He's very friendly," Stephen replied contemplatively. He lifted one hand, stroking at the creature's bulbous head, and it responded by wrapping another of its multitude arms around Stephen's wrist. Stephen smiled.

"A little too friendly, Stephen."

Stephen dismissed Jack's sudden, inexplicable dislike of the octopus with a frown and a wave of his remaining free hand, and went back to writing, "...dexterous arms. The suction created against the skin by numerous cups along the creature's arms can be felt strongly..."

It would be polite, at this juncture, for Jack to take his leave and allow Stephen to spend time with his new discovery, but he could not bring it in himself to leave. Not with the cursed animal threading its arms down inside Stephen's collar as it was.

"I am unwell," he contrived, not used to lying to Stephen, but needing some excuse to stay.

"Yes?" Stephen said absently, most of his focus still on his scribbling. "We haven't been in port of late, so it can't be _that_ type of problem."

"It's not!" Jack sputtered. "I haven't-" The creature was laughing at him. He was sure of it. "Well. I rather meant- Stephen, will you please stop writing? You do realise that fiend of yours has an arm down the back of your-"

Stephen started in alarm. "Christ!"

He jumped out of his seat, hitting his head on the beams and Jack hurried towards him, glad finally that Stephen had realised just what peril he was in.

"I'll get it off," Jack said. "I'll get it off you." He reached out and grappled at its most invasive arm, pulling it away. For such a small thing it was incredibly strong.

Stephen twisted around, his back arching, sucking in a breath and his voice was higher than usual when he said, "It's very cold."

"Oh dear," Jack said. "Oh dear."

"I'm sure it's just seeking warmth, or, perhaps a dark place to hide," Stephen suggested in that higher tone. "I'm sure it means no harm, Jack. Don't wrench on its arms so roughly!"

Jack very much desired to tear its arms clean off for taking such liberties. The damned this was stuck fast, clinging to Stephen's skin, causing Stephen to cry out in pain when Jack tried to pry its body from Stephen's neck.

"We must burn it off," Jack decided, and made for the lantern hurriedly.

"I won't have it, Jack!" Stephen cried, backing away from him, and in that one moment of distraction, when Stephen had been more concerned with the creature's life than with its wandering arms, the sea-animal had been able to slip three questing arms inside Stephen's breeches, and one had found a way into his shirt by what route Jack very much did not want to know.

"How can you defend it?" Jack saw what it was doing, even if Stephen did not. There were red circular marks, bruises, all along Stephen's chin where the vicious beast had clung and fought, and yet still Stephen shied away when Jack brought forward a candle.

"It acts on instinct," Stephen argued. "There is no malevolence to-"

"It is evil, Stephen!" Jack declared. "Look at what it is doing!"

Certainly, Stephen could well see the way the creature slithered its way over him; how it reached for his skin and brushed arms across him in what looked very much like loving caresses. Stephen knew all this, for he was desperately trying to keep the thing from pushing too far, from ripping open his buttons. Jack could see the movement beneath fabric and hoped that he would not soon be required to darn more holes in his friend's clothing. If Stephen would only ever _listen_ to him.

"You are shivering, my dear," Jack observed, watching as Stephen struggled with long, undulating arms, plucking at them and pulling at them but there were too many and Stephen hadn't enough hands nor enough strength.

"A fascinating thing," Stephen muttered abstractly, more to himself than to Jack. "So determined and curious. Dexterity is incredible. It is possible the creature is more intelligent than I initially suspected. I should very much like to see its brain-"

"I would be happy to assist you." Jack was very much decided. Like it or no, the vile creature needed removing from Stephen's person. He approached with the candle.

"No, no, Jack. Not _yet_. I-" Stephen's words were cut off with a yelp and a sharp twist, frantically then trying to grasp at an arm running into the back of his breeches.

"I will hear no more protests." Jack could very well imagine what manner of unseemly things the creature was attempting. "It is- _defiling_ you!"

Stephen frowned fiercely, but at least this time did not protest when Jack thrust forward the flame, directly under the creature's large, pulsating head. It wriggled and snapped its arms, flinging them out towards Jack defensively. He had been successful is drawing its arms from Stephen's clothes, but now they were whipping at Jacks wrists and face painfully, and squeezing at Stephen's throat. He wished he had his damned sword so he could skewer the wretched thing.

"Jack," Stephen gasped, clawing at his neck, straining for air. It was more reaction without thought than strategy, but Jack lunged forward and pressed the candle directly into what he assumed was the creature's eye. Light in the cabin dimmed. In that fraction of time when the creature must have registered the pain its arms loosened and Jack dashed it away, its heavy body hitting the floor with a dull thud.

Before Jack had even straightened, the creature was slinking forward at an almost unbelievable speed, pulling itself along the floor with arms and slapping sounds. Instantly, Jack could tell that it was making for Stephen's legs.

He picked up the nearest thing he could reach; the chair, and brought it down, hard, on the creature's head. The thing shuddered and its arms were thrown wild, and then as the edge of the chair leg pounded a second time on the sea-animal's soft skull it went still. Jack beat it one more time for good measure, and was rewarded when the leg managed to split the creature's head open completely, spattering gore and black ink all over the room. It reeked most unpleasantly.

Standing up triumphantly, setting the chair to rights next to Stephen's desk, Jack looked over at Stephen. His friend did not look happy, and for a moment Jack thought that perhaps something was wrong. Stephen was, after all, still holding his throat tenderly.

"Are you-" he began, skirting around the creature's remains to move closer.

"Ruined!" Stephen interrupted. "You've _ruined_ it!"

Jack stared back, disbelieving.

Stephen's voice croaked as he carried on, "Look at it!"

He pointed. "Utterly barbarised!"

Jack found his own voice again, and if he hadn't known Stephen so well he might have been surprised by his friend's indignation. "Stephen," he said, calm and even from long experience of just this sort of situation. "Don't be absurd. It had turned dangerous!"

"Oh yes," Stephen crossed his arms over his chest, most decidedly displeased. "Stop its attack. I thank you for that. But you did not have to- _splatter_ its brains across the room!"

"There was no time to find another way," Jack retorted crossly. The creature had been given far too much of Stephen's attention to Jack's mind. "It was strangling you."

He felt the cold slide of something liquid down the side of his face, and he saw the lines of red and purple across and around Stephen's neck, and he would not be sorry the creature was lying in a mess. Crushed and leaking and undoubtedly dead.

More softly, frowning, Stephen complained, "I won't be able to look at its brains."

Perhaps Stephen wanted him to say they'd find another, but Jack would not let another of the creatures on board for anything. No matter how much Stephen begged.

They stood staring at each other for a time, whether in challenge or something else Jack wasn't sure, until the smell became almost too much to bear and Jack no longer wished to see the marks the creature had left on Stephen. Until there was a sickening lurch and a cracking sound like they'd hit a reef, scouring their underside, and in a second Jack was on deck, looking out and around, with Stephen close behind him.

There was chaos as sailors, old hands even, ran to and fro and fell to their knees and prayed for salvation. The maintopmast was being ripped clean away by a long, unnaturally-sized arm. The same colour, the same tapering appendages and hollow cups, just much, much bigger.

Beside him, absently wiping mess from his cheek, Stephen said in that strangely detached, even voice he sometimes had, "I had speculated that the sea-creature we captured earlier, which you so gallantly rid me of, was an infant..."

**.End.**


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